Explore the rocky terrain and sandy wastes of Mars in this brand new installment to the Take On series. Developed by the creators of the award-winning Arma series and DayZ, Take On Mars places you right in the middle of mankind's most exciting undertaking. Pioneer the exploration of Mars.

Sign in to add this item to your wishlist, follow it, or mark it as not interested

Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you
should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“Early Access allows us to involve the community from early on in the project, meaning the players very much help shape the game. This allows us to make decisions based on what the community wants. After all, we are making the game for them, not only for ourselves.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“The game is planned for release in the the second half of 2015.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“Until the game leaves Early Access, it's likely that it will feature some unpleasant bugs or confusing features. With final release, we aim to deliver a more streamlined experience, including tutorials and fixes for bugs and issues the community reports via our Feedback Tracker website."”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“At present, Take On Mars is in the Beta development stage. It means that the game should not dramatically change in terms of gameplay possibilities, but we will keep adding new content and features during the Beta stage”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“We intend to slightly increase the price upon the release.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“We listen to your feedback and we aim for very open communication. While we sometimes need to prioritize, we take the ideas and suggestions of our community very seriously. As an example, the entire robotic section of the Space Program mode was completely overhauled from a linear set of missions to sandbox style progression where technologies determine which missions are available.”

Buy Take On Mars 4-Pack

Recommended By Curators

July 5

We’re happy to announce that after almost 2 years of Alpha development, our team has successfully pushed the first BETA marked build of Take On Mars to Steam. While this suggests that we’re closing in for the final release of the game later this year, there is still a lot to be done and polished: including additional features we’re considering for further development.

In that aspect, we see the first BETA release as an important milestone that sets the basic boundaries for the game – meaning that from the gameplay perspective, no radical changes (such as the additional multiplayer mode or the manned missions were in the past) should happen in future.

From a player perspective, the main task of this BETA release is mainly to provide a set of stabilizing fixes: for example the texture crash bug that was causing a lot of pain recently, as well as several other crashes, should now be resolved.

Looking ahead, we will keep adding content until we reach a feature complete BETA, and we will also be looking at some refinements to the content that already is in the game. The first iteration of these refining efforts can already be seen in this build, where we’ve reworked most of the user interface, including the one in our in-game editor.

Announced earlier, we will of course keep working on the redesign of building blocks (there are still several tasks that need to be done) and with some additional help from our fellow game designers at Bohemia Interactive, we will also think about possible tweaks regarding the overall experience players have with Take On Mars.

With the first BETA release, we’re also changing the price of Take On Mars a little bit – from now on, new players will be able to buy our Early Access BETA starting at 21,99$/19,99€/15,99£, while of course nothing changes for those of you who already own the game.

June 17

Take On Mars was originally announced two years ago at E3 2013. What was then a Mars rover simulator has grown into a significantly larger game - especially with the addition of a manned section, multiplayer and new locations such as the Moon or the Low Earth Orbit. Since Bohemia Interactive is sponsoring the first PC Gaming Show at E3 this year, we thought we could use the opportunity to present Take On Mars there - and we did. With a brand new trailer and a 33% OFF sale!

Prepping for E3 combined with a bunch of other major things on our to-do lists ultimately resulted in moving the BETA release a little bit further. As we also want the BETA release to be as stable as possoble, we want to avoid pushing updates too often, because this could make the odds of randomly messing things up quite high.

With that said, we've had a period where we seemingly kept things quiet, but the reality behind the scenes was quite the opposite of that. Let's take a look at some of the things our team's been working on lately.

Major building redesign

Changing the design of buildings and building blocks is something that not everyone would consider necessary, but it's going to be an important part of the BETA release. The word "redesign" in this context means not only changing the models and textures, but basically reworking the entire system of what players can build with available parts.

Bases built with the new building blocks will feel less like "bubbles" and more like real buildings. Making the blocks larger and available in many different shapes and variants should also sweeten the building process and lead to more unique, believable structures. Also, interior and exterior blocks are now separate. This allows for the construction of greenhouses (only exterior panels with windows), or full buildings with several floors and rooms.

Since proper interiors would feel empty without more equipment, we are now also working on additional furniture pieces, such as sofas, beds or new chairs that have their intended functionality.

Ragdoll and character animations

Don't jump around a lot in Take On Mars, or you'll experience some nasty falls! If you are subscribed to the Test Branch on Steam, you've probably already noticed the new contextual climbing animation. Another addition to the character movement in the BETA will be ragdolls. If you, for some reason, miss your jump, fall unconscious, die, or have no oxygen, your friends will be able to drag you into an airlock, or you'll be able to recover your things from your body later - all that with new animations.

Killing bugs and crashes

We've been recently fighting some nasty crashes related to texture size, which we will need to reduce a bit, because it was filling the available video memory in a sub-optimal way. Also, atmospheric zones are incorrectly generated on occasion (sometimes a zone is not generated where it should be), so this is one fix we need to take care of, as well as bunch of other things: for example, we've spent quite some time working on the Steam Workshop implementation, which we are quite proud of. It is fully functional now and makes the process of joining multiplayer sessions with mods much easier.

Localization

Before the BETA release, we also need to address another important part of Take On Mars development: localization. We are now coordinating the translation of Take On Mars into 10 different languages. Combined, the original English texts contain more than 38 000 words, while the biggest portion of the text is dedicated to the Take On Mars Wiki (which is basically a big educational handbook with everything you need to know about Mars or space exploration).

One thing we would really, really like to emphasize is that majority of translations is taken care of by either enthusiastic professional translators or with the help of Take On Mars community members. We would like to thank everyone participating in the translation process for their hard work (hint: they will be soon able to read their names in Credits!). After we finish the largest chunk of translations during BETA, we are confident that players from around the world will appreciate the effort put into it. Please bear in mind though that translations in BETA will be a work in progress, constantly developing and improving until full release, as will be the case for the whole game of course.

BETA release date and one sneaky surprise

We have the the BETA release scheduled on July 3rd, 2015, and we will do our best to deliver in time. After all, we really want to, because if all goes well, we should be able to treat you with a very exciting addition to the game sometime after BETA. But let's just keep it a surprise feature for now on.

Expedition One now available!

About This Game

Explore the rocky terrain and sandy wastes of Mars in this brand new installment to the Take On series. Developed by the creators of the award-winning Arma series and DayZ, Take On Mars places you right in the middle of mankind's most exciting undertaking. Start out in the seat of a rover operator, pushing your vehicles to the max. Finish as the first human to have ever set foot on Mars. With a scientific arsenal at your disposal, you will pioneer the exploration of another planet, unlocking the secrets of Mars’ distant past.

Key Features

Space Program Campaign - Explore the Red Planet from the perspective of a science-driven space agency. Become a rover operator, allowing you to control various fully simulated mobile rovers and stationary landers, and make your way through numerous scientific missions.

Mars Rover Simulation - Take a seat of an operator in the mission control center, commanding rovers, landers or probes over the distance of hundreds of millions of kilometers, and collect important scientific data about Mars.

Expedition One Multiplayer - Use the opportunity to become Mars astronauts and work together to establish the foundations for a first human colony on Mars. Build your own habitat, drive various vehicles, and manage the resources needed to keep your crew alive.

Real Life Locations - Travel across a vast, unforgiving Martian terrain with locations based on actual satellite data from famous locations such as Victoria Crater and Deimos.

Content Creation Tools & Modding Support - Create your own scenarios in the 3D Editor and share them on the Steam Workshop, or dive into Take On Mars’ powerful Workbench editing suite to develop new terrains, addons and total modifications.

As a lover of space games I reccommend the game. Take on mars is a great simulation game for those who want to see what it would be like to explore mars like nasa. In singleplayer you run a space program with a goal of exploring mars with rovers and landers. The single player can be boring if you are not into slow paced games. Most people won't like singleplayer unless they have enthusiasm for space. The multiplayer is about manned missions to mars. Once you land on mars its up to you and other to build a settlement on mars using 3d printers. Once you build a base for online it can get kinda of boring. I recommend that you set your own goals for online when playing. The goals can be anything as long as it keeps from gwtting bored. When playing online do not expect lots of action. This is a mars simulater its not meant to be action packed. Overall I would recommend this game only to people who have a love of space. This game gets an 8/10. The only things holding it back right now is a lack of content, but this should be fixed soon. Before you buy the game keep in mind you are buying a beta and not a complete game. Have fun on mars!

Very large learning curve for the younger population. Would recommend to anyone that enjoys the idea of space exploration and building. The "Career Mode" is nice, but seems like things are given to you. I would rather have a more interactive time with the tests and scans. If you can get in a go multiplayer server with some friends it is quite fun. When you are in space you will walk slow and drive slow. It will take time to do anything and everything. So if you are looking for a quick paced game look else where.

Its Awsome, the dev's are doing a great job, and i am really impressed with what is going on with this game, Unbelievable.... Now if they just implement using the resources into the buildings it would be hot, All that oxygen from the soil and no where to put it, maybe a oxygen station to hook to the building to give or feed oxygen into the living quarters. ,....I Love It!!!!! Great Game .....

This is not a fast paced game, It takes time. However I like that, and I find it engaging, It keeps me playing!I've owned TKOM for a while and seen it though development and I like what they are doing, its been a good road, I cant say that about alot of early access games.

-Airlocks and other doors are broken. Airlocks are intended to permit passage between exterior and interior spaces without depressurizing the interior, as opposed to depressurizing everything BUT the space between the two airlock doors. And regular interior doors have a chance of depressurizng everything as well, even if the pressure on either side is safe.

-Damage to space suits is global, rather than on a per-instance basis. In other words, if you damage the legs on your medium suit, then take it off and put on a completely unused heavy suit, the legs of the heavy suit are also damaged.

-It's insanely easy to get stuck in geometry. Attempting to get unstuck is also risky, as the physics engine loves throwing players around at high velocities.

-Things that look like they should fit together don't. For example, the corners of airlock corridors have the same radius as regular curved walls, but refuse to be attached to anything but airlock passageways.

-The editor is both difficult to use and completely undocumented. There's no indication that snapping is even a thing in the editor, making it impossible to construct a base outside of the scenario itself.

-Mouse acceleration is ridiculous and impossible to disable, meaning that a movement of the mouse as small as a few centimeters can sometimes rotate the camera completely around three or four times. (Keep in mind I'm not talking about mouse lag, which is thankfully nonexistent, mouse speed, which can be changed using the incorrectly-named "mouse resolution" setting, or the "fluid camera" setting, which can be disabled.)

I do understand that this is a beta, and thus a number of the things I mentioned will probably be addressed before the game is officially released, but for now I have to give it a thumbs-down.